problem with new puppys eyes

Question
My husband has been wanting a Chocolate Lab for many years. We found some in our local new's paper. We went and took a look at them. Of course you see a puppy and just fall in love with them. We looked at all of the (4). 3 females and 1 male. The male was very scared of everything.... And I mean EVERYTHING. 2 of the females were scared as well. We sat an played with the other 2 for about an hour or so. The one that came up to use right off the bat was the one we decide to take home. She is great..  ROXEE is her name. The first night we brought her home she played with our other dog that is 2 1/2, they hit it off. My cat..... WOW he does not like her at all. O.K. to the point we have had her for 3 days now and yesterday she ate a lot of her food and got sick on her blanket. I washed it and put it the dryer and placed it back in her kennel. No problems at this point. My 7 year old son when to take her out side when she woke up. I noticed that her left eye was swollen. My son and her were playing and running in the house, she did hit her head/eye on the side of the dishwasher. She was fine. We thought that was why her eye was looking the way it did. About an hour later he other eye was the same. The 1st eye is now by this point swollen all the way shut. Her top lip is swelling as well.  Not knowing what to do. I called my ex mother-in-law and she then called her sister who works at a vet office. She said that she could be having a reaction from the blanket that i had washed. We gave her some Children's Benadryl and she sleep for about 3 hours. The swelling has now gone all the way down. My question is how do i know if that is what happened to her and if so will it happen again? If it is from the detergent that I am using will it happen with her laying on us or anything else that i wash and dry?           Thank You for you'r time and help

                           Leslie K Tabor

Answer
If it was the freshly-washed blanket, it should still be bothering her.

Many years ago I had the same thing happen to a young bitch whose face start swelling after a potty trip outside (and she had been watched the entire time). We rushed her to the vet (a lengthy trip since we were out in the woods at a cabin), and by the time we finally got to the vet, she was starting to improve slightly. He thought it might have been from some sort of bug bite or sting, although I never saw any evidence of that. It never happened to her again.

Does your cat have claws? I know I always get a reaction from cat claws, even the gentle, accidental ones. If so, keep those nails cut a bit shorter for a time until he gets more accepting of the new puppy.

Also, it sounds like maybe you haven't taken the puppy in to see the vet yet. You must always do this with any new dog to be sure it is healthy, etc. It is for your own protection, as well as the breeder. (A sick puppy 1-1/2 to 2 weeks later... who is to blame? The breeder or the buyer?) Be sure to take a stool specimen in, also, to be checked for parasites.

A puppy eating its normal ration of food should not be throwing it back up, unless it happened to eat it too quickly. If you switch it over to a new diet, be sure to do that gradually.

Karen